Dr. Nigil Haroon, MD, PhD, is the Head of the Division of Rheumatology at the University Health Network and Sinai Health. He is an associate professor of medicine and rheumatology at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute and the Schroeder Arthritis Institute, a state-of-the-art research facility in Toronto. He has held multiple board and leadership roles including being Immediate Past President of the Canadian Rheumatology Association, Vice-Chair of the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN), Co-President of the International Spondyloarthritis Congress (Belgium).

Dr. Haroon is an internationally renowned clinician scientist in the field of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). He is well published in this area and has been an invited speaker in several international meetings. Dr. Haroon also serves on the board of the Spondylarthritis Research and Treatment Network (SPARTAN) as well as on the Medical and Scientific Advisory Boards of the Spondylitis Association of America and the Canadian Spondylitis Association. Dr. Haroon has won several awards including the Vanier Scholarship and the Jane Bruckel Award of the Spondylitis Association of America.

Dr. Haroon has a well-established translational research program at the University Health Network, Toronto and is known for his work in functional genomics of AS. He has published paradigm-shifting studies in AS including the first study to demonstrate that TNF inhibitors can decrease the risk of progression of spinal fusion. He published one of the largest population-based studies in AS including a total of 100,000 subjects/controls and identified a significant increased risk of dying from heart attacks and strokes in AS patients. He identified the role for MIF, an innate immune molecule that can drive both inflammation and bone formation in AS patients.